for the blessings in store for it,
'undoubtedly.'"

The word fell to a little girl, but was rattled off as quick as a wink, to
Miss Preston's great amusement, for the child was an ambitious little body
who hated to be outdone by the big girls.

"Desirability" was the next word, and was given to one of the largest,
although by no means the most brilliant, girls in the school.

She hesitated a moment, and then said: "If desire is spelled d-e-s-i-r-e,
I suppose the other end of it will be a-b-i-l-i-t-y."

"A quality in which you are lacking," was the instantaneous retort. "If
you desired it more, your ability would be greater."

When desirability had been successfully dealt with, ten or more words were
happily disposed of, then came another poser in the form of
'physiognomical,' and the groans which greeted it foretold its fate.

"What does it _mean_, anyway, Miss Preston?" asked one girl.

"Well, there is more than one way of telling you its meaning, but I
believe in simple explanations, so I will say, that when you all rush off
to the cloak-room at one o'clock that it would be well for you to observe
carefully the expression upon the other girl's face when you throw down
her hat and coat in your eagerness to get your own first. You will then,
doubtless, have an excellent opportunity to form a correct idea of the
meaning of physiognomical. Then you may come and tell me whether you
consider her character an angelic or impish one."

How well Miss Preston was aware of their besetting sins, and how shrewdly
did she use them to their undoing.

I should never dare tell the wonderful combinations of letters which were
brought together ere that dreadful word was spelled correctly; but such a
rapid sitting down followed that a stranger coming suddenly upon them
might have supposed that Miss Preston's girls were fainting one after
another.

About fifty words, all told, were spelled with more or less success, and
then came the grand summing up, and those girls who could not yield a
clean record from beginning to end had to pay the penalty.

Not a very severe one, to be sure, but one they were not likely to forget,
for each word that they had misspelled was written upon a good-sized piece
of paper and pinned upon their breasts "as a reward of demerit," Miss
Preston told them, and, although it was all done in fun and joked and
laughed over at the time, each girl knew that those words must be
thoroughly committed to memory